Cyberpunk 2077 failed to deliver the experiance that CDPR was advertising up until the release of the game. They promised an RPG that will redefine the genre, but instead we got a middling "Action-RPG" experiance that feels more like FarCry rather than the pen and paper game the game is based on. All troughout the development of the game we were promised a experiance unlike any other and I must admit that I actually believed that CDPR could pull it off. But they didn't... The buggs and horrible optimization are the least of the games problems, they are just convinient issues that CDPR is happy about. Since the bugs distract people from the real issues of the game.
This game is possibly one of the best grand strategy games within a sci-fi setting. While some of the changes in gameplay made over the years are questionable, as a whole is still a great game. Lots to do with a great amount of variety of game styles. BUT...and it is a big stinky butt. The performance of this game is downright abysmal. I have played my fair share of poorly optimized games, but this takes the damn cake. The fact that you can own a 1400 dollar PC and this game struggles to run without hitching and stuttering at the very beginning of the game is truly an achievement in modern computing. Let us not even mention the end game! The game will struggle so much I pretty sure your PC will start sending you e-mails begging you to put a bullet through its MOBO as a mercy kill. It is quite clear that the game engine that Stellaris is made on is not able to handle the amount of data this game constantly requires to process. The worse part is that Paradox stubbornly refuses to acknowledge this issue and will rather cram in more gameplay mechanics that kill the performance even more, instead of trying to fix the damn game. There are other problems like- unbalanced empire spawns, self-destructing AI, etc. However, there is a gem here somewhere...under a thick layer of stuttering poo. :(
Just off the bat, the game felt like a chore to play. The simple yet functional controls where butchered to make way for the horrible abortion that is the control scheme for this game. The main hand- "left mouse button", offhand- "E"? Who was the ape that felt like that was a good idea? Any attempt to change the controls so that it can be used by an actual human is limited since this game was one of the pioneers of the "one button to rule them all" game design. Warrior Within has " "gamepad support" - as in broken controls. So no, the gameplay is in no way an "improvement". Just because you cram more stuff inside, does not make something better. Remember the worst two parts in the first game? The battle with your father and the final boss? Now imagine that boring combat cycle repeating itself over and over. This is what this game feels like. The setting is bland and attempts to "get hip with the kids". Making everyone an unlikable bellend and make them utter "naughty words". The music was pure cancer when the game originally came out and it has gone worse with age. Only brainlets that enjoy crap like Hollywood Undead and Limp Bizkit can find any enjoyment in this auditory torture. The setting itself is brown and bland, just like most games from this part of history. The game elects no reason why a player should go through all the effort to make the game work or tolerable. Just read the plot on the official Wikia and play the third game instead. They mostly retcon the second game anyway due to its poor reception. The only reason people like this game now is because people believe that this game has earned a cult classic status and is akin to something like Psychonauts or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. It's not. It has no qualities that make a game a cult classic.
I was really excited for this game when I saw gamplay of it on YT (by MATN). Sadly, this game is not what I expected. But first! Let us get to the good parts. 1. It's pretty. 2. It has a nice setting. 3. It has potential (but that does not excuse any of it's faults). So we got that out of our way. Here is the main crux of the problem. This game is terribly short, lacking of any replayabilty and has a very strickt META game due to the pace of the game. The entire takes palce within only the span of a couple of months. By itself it is not a bad thing, however, the ingame day is abysmally short in real time. Also, to add insult to injury, the NPC's will only be productive for max 12h of that ingame day. The laws you can pass are very few in amount and can't be changed. This reduces the strategic flexiblity and repleyabilty of the game. The two "causes" that you have to choose during the midgame are simply re-skins of eachother, further reducing replay value. And as I said, due to the pace forced upon you, you will have to play in a certain way to avoid losing. In addition the gathering of resources is terribly unbalanced. You will drwon in some resources, while severly lacking in others. This is made more acute by the brakeneck speed of this game and the porrly designed UI that will do its best to not inform you of important details on the map. This game really needs a survival mode that can be an alternative to the "story". 10 updates and 25DL---ech--"Expansions" later this might actually resemble a game.
